Terje Sorgjerd

Holy Guacamole. Terje Sorgjerd is a genius. This video almost moved me to tears with it's sheer beauty. This is what I think film and photography is about; showing people something which they wouldn't have been able to see before rather than just reproducing what is there. The only link to my current work is the use of light and film techniques to explore a space. I just thought people really needed to see this.

Experiment

Blithe Spirit

Follow my blog with bloglovin

I also had the pleasure of photographing a new local theatre group called Growl Theatre and their first production Blithe Spirit. The show was fantastic and hilarious! Here are a few snaps.


















I can't wait to see The Wombats live in 3 weeks! So much excitement!

Teaching?

Currently feeling particularly angsty about my Modernism reading summaries. I've just finished this week's reading about De Stijl and I honestly couldn't be more uninterested in looking into it anymore... ever again. This actually makes me quite sad, why is it that the nature of education these days is that you want to get away from learning as quickly as possible and leave it behind?

When you teach something you should be teaching for life, encouraging passion and creating curiousity, not teaching temporarily for exams and destroying passion. Maybe this is just my annoyed current emotional state. Hopefully when, at some stage, I finish my graduate diploma in secondary education I will be able to go into teaching with some sort of passion for my work and teach in a way that I think legitimately helps students.

And it's ok, passenger will get me through. He can stalk me anyday.

Losing Faith In Humanity... Again...

For our second uni project we are given the choice to continue with our current body of work (light and dark) or start a new piece. After seeing the video above I am very tempted to start something new, something with a lot more meaning to it. With Sustainability Day coming up at my old high school I can't help but wonder if I really should direct my artistic pursuits to something more meaningful. That speech was made in 1992 and I couldn't help asking myself, what's changed? We are still slowly destroying the planet through pollution and deforestation, we still wage constant wars and we are still too greedy to give up our enormous wealth to help others.

"I don't understand why people, why every fucking person is so bad to each other so fucking often." Into the Wild.

Meanwhile over at Love Our Laneways they are attempting to negotiate with developers at Grocon to stop a wonderful laneway precinct from being lost. They have presented a fantastic and completely valid alternative plan and yet they are still unwilling to cooperate. Please go sign the petition here.

I'm now going to include the music I'm listening to on each post because well, music is a huge inspiration to me and I don't see why I wouldn't include it. It should generally tell you exactly what mood I'm in after all. Despite this angsty post I am feeling fairly happy after being asked to photograph a theatre company last night and actually completing it quite well. Also I have found the dubstep wonder that is Adventure Club through my amazing friend Tom, and I have just found a Temper Trap remix, hallelujah!

LOLBNE

A step away from art just for a second. Or perhaps a step towards, I am still unsure. Whatever the case I think this is an issue which needs to be shared and as a 21st century teenager I feel my opinions are valid because I can instantly upload them to the net. Love Our Laneways is a project aimed at stopping the demolition of the 1920's buildings which form the alleyway precinct between Elizabeth and Charlotte Streets. If you are lacking in knowledge of Brisbane history the short story is that many of our historic buildings were demolished by the Deen Brothers, a no questions asked demolition company during the premiership of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who was determined to develop Brisbane. Consequently Brisbane is left without many of it's historical buildings.

This is living history in Queensland and the preservation of such a district is simply necessary. Go to their site to sign the petition if you feel the same, it doesn't take long at all.

http://www.loveourlaneways.com/

Process and Progress

At the beginning

So this is how it started. I arrive at university and I am told "make a diorama". My mind raced trying to think of ideas with no success. A few days later I was browsing through the accumulated mess in my room and found a packet of paddlepop sticks from some project years ago. When I think diorama my first thought is primary school project, I think lots of people had trouble getting past that but I decided, armed with my paddlepop sticks, to embrace childhood and create a sculpture. More specifically a windmill.

By creating something child-like I hoped to create an art piece which appealed to many, a piece which would appeal to anybody on some level. This became increasinly apparent in my mind as I researched artists.

For example, the works of Martin Creed and Olafur Eliasson which are currently showing at GoMA's 21st Century: Art in the First Decade were hugely influential. Both these works have a child-like quality and have proven to be amazingly popular. In my opinion this is simply because people can relate to them so I ventured to create something similiar.

Banksy, as an interest of mine from long back was a great influence. The way that his work is created makes it accessible to anyone who sees it by using recognizable symbols and images which is exactly my aim.

Candice Breitz does the same in her work King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) by using the familiar music of Michael Jackson. She has created a work which is effective despite myself not having a particular liking of Michael Jackson's music. It is simply due to the fact that it is similar to me. By using an easily recognisable symbol, in the case of my work, a windmill, and recognisable materials, in my case paddlepop sticks, I hope to give anyone who views it an enjoyable experience.

A little later after seeing the work of Slinkachu and Thomas Doyle I was inspired to add a miniture environment around the windmill using hobby supplies like grass and trees to create a more interesting base to the piece.



Over the next week the windmill sat on the kitchen bench. I observed it through all kinds of light. From the slight morning glow emitting from the back of the house to the direct sunset in the afternoons. The way the light caught the sculptural elements of the windmill caught my eye and I developed a keen interest in the way the piece worked in a space dependant on light. It then occured to me that the only direction the piece had not been lit from was from the inside! So, as an art student does, I found a way to do exactly that.

I started to research the works of Dan Flavin and Yayoi Kusmama who both use light to create dynamic and exciting art pieces. I also focused on a musician named Jonsi who uses light and projections in his live shows to create atmospheres of extreme emotion. I became interested in the way that light is considered unattainable, it cannot be physically picked up yet it can create such wonder.

I was also in the process of researching a Brisbane photographer Alex Bowler. By seeing his photographs I was inspired to use photography to explore my themes. This resulted in OBSERVATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS focusing on the aesthetic qualities of the light later manipulated on the computer to black and white so as to highlight the architectural shapes of the windmill.

















We were then asked to develop a 30 second film from still photographs of our diorama. I decided to go with my light and dark theme and make a clip which showed the two contrasting opposites.



Now as another piece developed from my first piece comes a pair of inverted prints. They show a simplified view of the windmill in a lit room as opposed to being lit from the inside. It explores the binary oppositions involved in the exploration of light, including light and dark, black and white and positive and negative space.

In the future I hope to work with the space around the windmill in the form of installation and play with light in an even more effective way.

Belinda Jane Mackay

This is Belinda Jane Mackay commonly known as Bejay to her friends(as she is short and easy). But jokes aside really she is just a fantastic person who has been there for me many times. We both attended Hillbrook Anglican School and partied until the early hours many times. According to facebook there are 39 photos of us together and we like 51 similiar things. We once did an ancient history assignment together and created an amazing board game called Christianity Insanity (Which was better than that of Teagan and Peta) even if we spent a lot of the time discussing gossip, the taste of cheap potato chips and taking selfies. She is one of my besterest friends and therefore a great inspiration to me. Here are a couple of snaps of this fantastic human being.

Jónsi is a God.

Jón "Jónsi" Thor Birgisson is a musician from Iceland and a huge inspiration to me. Although he works in music the visual aspect of his work is spectacular. Of particular interest to me is the work with light and shadow used in his live shows and film clips. By using lighting and projections Jónsi creates an atmosphere of intense emotion to accompany his already highly emotional music.



In the Grow Till Tall live recording from Jónsi's Go Live DVD we can see the use of light in Jónsi's live performances. Through projection the emotion of the music is emphasized. As the music intensifies so does the speed and subject matter of the projections. The lighting around the performers is kept low to create a range of silouhettes and also emphasize the projections. The crowd is also kept in a dark space which is unfamiliar. All of these things combined create an intense experience and a dynamic space.


References

Photos by Darren Webb
"Jonsi- Official Site" Accessed 4th April 2010. http://jonsi.com/

Dalton, Stephen (06/09/2010). "Jonsi". Times (London, England : 1788) p. 48.

Jamie Alexander

Although there are only 32 photos of us together on facebook and we only 'like' 11 similar things and therefore my relationship with Jamie is, according to facebook significantly less valid than my relationship with Bejay, he's still kinda cool. We both went to Hillbrook yet we only became good friends quite recently. He's someone I can always talk to about nearly anything. He shares an obsession with Francisco Lachowski and we both connect emotionally with Barney Stinson. He has a fantastic taste in music which has many similarities to mine. Although he is a conservative old man with a fro who wishes he lived near civilisation he's an awesome dude.

Dan Flavin

Dan Flavin was a minimalist artist from Jamaica who worked in sculpture by using commercially available fluorescent lights. Flavin created simple yet striking spaces with what are in escence straight lines of coloured light. The use of light appeals to me immensely as I think it is so important in the viewing of art, by making light the actual art he has created pieces which are new and interesting. It also interests me that when you think about it this art cannot be picked up, the lights can be of course, but the part that makes it interesting, the light that is emitted, can never be physically touched. This intrigues me and I hope to work with the non-physicality of light in the future.



References

Cooper, Ivy. Artforum. New York: Dec 2008. Vol. 47, Iss. 4; p. 307

Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. "Dan Flavin: Constructed Light" Accessed April 4, 2011. http://flavin.pulitzerarts.org/#/home/

Fallon, Roberta. Rosof, Libby. 2010. "Contemporary Art, Who Cares? A conference in Amsterdam" The Art Blog, June 25. Accessed April 4, 2011. http://theartblog.org/2010/06/contemporary-art-who-cares-a-conference-in-amsterdam/

An Often Forgotten Source Of Inspiration

Friendship. It's so necessary to us as humans, social interaction is paramount, but how does it affect me creatively? How does it inspire me?

Let's face it, I have fantastic friends and although the groups may have changed I think that leaving school has only strengthened my relationships with those who matter. I have new friends, I've got friends who I would never have expected to be close to and I've got friends who have just always been there. My friends have always been an inspiration, I don't understand how they couldn't be. They're such a huge part of my life and I can't imagine them not affecting my art.

A lot of the time they actually feature in my work, I guess working in mainly photography for quite a while that was inevitable. I would be thoroughly surprised if anyone I know well has not been in a photograph of mine at some stage. I am very grateful about the fact that my friends put up with it... constantly.

My friends have been faced with weird costumes in public places, body paint that gets stuck in your eyebrows and ill fitting clothing and yet they are still willing and sometimes even enthusiastic to help me when I need them. I love you all.

As you may have noticed I take a couple of photos every now and again, here are a small selection :) Judge for yourself but I think my friends are a pretty darn beautiful looking bunch of people.